Miss Jade

I love to stitch, and I love Mill Hill kits. So, of course I had to stitch this:

I like the design, and it was interesting stitching with Sullivan’s floss. But, I’m pretty sure now that I wouldn’t go out of my way to stitch with Sullivan’s again. Will I avoid Mill Hill kits because of it? No, I don’t think so.

I think my main issue with Sullivan’s is that is very sewing thread-like. By that I mean it is tightly twisted and doesn’t feel as soft as DMC. It also seems to tangle and twist more easily, but because it is so tightly twisted to begin with, it is a bit easier to unknot it. Ultimately, my experience just confirms that DMC is my cotton floss of choice.

Whew! I knit a pair of sort-of-complicated socks in just over three days!

The pattern is Flying Dutchman. The sailboat motif is achieved through a technique called intarsa in the round, which is fairly complicated and requires a lot of turning and purling back and then turning and knitting forward, etc. I’m so pleased that the socks turned out so well, which is mostly thanks to a very well written pattern. (I had taken a class on intarsa in the round back in September 2011 and it just didn’t click. But now I get it!)

The yarn is Berroco Comfort sock in colourways Pearl (white) and Hari Hari. (The blue was supposed to be patterned, but my skein really wasn’t. Check the link to see what it should have looked like.)

I think I need to rest my hands a little bit. I just wish we had a bit more sun here so I could do something like sit outside or go for walks to otherwise entertain myself.

I have brought just a little bit of spring inside though, since Mother Nature seems to be taking a bit of a rest outdoors.

I hope spring is making an appearance in your part of the world. (Or autumn, if you happen to on the opposite side of the globe.) Part of the reason I love living where I do is because we have four very different seasons, but I just wish they would change a bit quicker this year. 😉

My beautiful wife whisked me away on a surprise 10 day holiday to Italy for an early anniversary present. We had an amazing time and there are no words that express how grateful I am to have Erin in my life

I am now beginning the process of catching up on everything – both on and offline. So tell me, friends, what have I missed? What have you been up to over the last week?

So, according to my doctor and an ultrasound, there is nothing at all wrong with my arm/elbow/shoulder. Imagine a giant eye roll here. I have the worst luck with medical tests. I could be bleeding out of my eye balls and the bleeding-out-of-your-eye-balls test would still come back negative. It is enough to make me want to give up on doctors completely!

Anyway, no more ranting. 😉 I’m happy, healthy-ish, and stitching. I don’t need much more in life to make me happy. And speaking of stitching, I’ve made some progress on Santa’s Journey.

He looks so much better now that I’ve back stitched his face. I do have a love/hate relationship with the back stitching in Dimensions’ designs, but the finished result generally does look good. (I changed his eyes to green because there isn’t enough of us green-eyed people in the world!)